Monday, August 27, 2018

Is Your Landscape Who You Are Now?

Can you come to lunch this weekend? We can eat at the Tea Olive Terrace, or if the weather is cold/wet, we can eat in the conservatory with a fire.
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To get this life, true questions, above, I was mentored by the best, studied for a 2nd college degree, horticulture, then studied historic gardens across Europe for decades, and on the side went to symposiums, filled a library with books, and more.
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"A woman who has a closet full of clothes, but nothing to wear, doesn't know herself very well.", said Bill Blass. Looking at your landscape, from inside your home, does it paint who you are now, and make your life better?
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This landscape, below, makes me smile at its wisdom, history, function, simplicity, & beauty. Invited to lunch in the garden, below, intuition whispers clearly, the camaraderie & food will both be superb.
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Lunch ministry in my garden has been a joy for years. I target the seemingly un-gardened, those with a soul hearing Nature, but not living it, perhaps having had zero opportunity to experience it. Casting bread upon the waters, washing the servants feet type of stuff.
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A few good recipes, especially a killer chicken salad, fresh fruit, etc, a joy assembling dishes/silverware/glasses, all set/done ahead of my guest/s arrival. Conversation/laughter and sharing the garden is the goal. Beware, one of my mentor's had us going on a garden rescue mission after lunch in her garden, somehow a police chopper became involved. Ladies who lunch? No, ladies who do-do-do.
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Pic, above, here.
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Time passes, daylight burns, events happen. I'm in a new landscape, ca. 1900 home, 3 years now. Much done in the garden, yet not a Conservatory, especially a Conservatory. Miss it for lunches, alone or with friends, a place to work, read, nap. Once necessities completed, Conservatory tops the list.
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Quickly, this summer, without request, pure happenstance disaster, my hair was shorn. Long hair since grade school, hair gone, who was in the mirror? Worse, the bits of jagged, erratic hair remaining belonged to a pitiful junk yard dog with mange, unhappy eyes and tail curled under hugging her stomach. My hair needed another cut, but what style?
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From Garden Design I knew the first rule to choosing a new haircut/style, Copy. A life of long fine blond hair had turned to thinning blond hair a few years ago. Whatever, deal with it, boring, move on. Excepting now I had to find hairstyles with my same fine/thinning hair. Haircut scheduled for early morning following my shearing. Was up till 1am on Pinterest. Carolina Herrera, Sharon Stone, Michele Williams, perfect trinity of short, fine, thin hair.
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Mostly, my hair is now Carolina with Sharon. Collaterally, more than hair was involved with the hair fiasco. Living with the new 'hairstyle' a few days, still not knowing who I was anymore, realized clothes/makeup did not match head/hair.
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Lucky with the hair choices of Carolina and Sharon, especially. Their clothing style easy to copy. Knowing, in Garden Design, dinky-is-stinky, I did a head-to-toe clothing renovation. Bags to the thrift store, and boxes from Nordstrom arriving on my front porch. Along with a huge bag bought at the thrift store, shorts/t-shirts (all Ann Taylor) and you're not believing the belts I found.
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Had already made mental notes thru the years to 'consider' cutting my hair shorter, hitting 60. Now 58, my hair is shorter than ever would have been considered. A friend said, "Now you know what you'll look like at 60!" Best humor ever, adore her more.
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Pic, above, here.
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Now my hair is slicked back in the morning, above, getting looser by late afternoon, below.
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Pic, above, here.
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Pic, above, here.
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Hair typically down, above, by dinner. Though some days I leave it Carolina Herrera slicked back all day.
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Why tell you all this? Is your landscape who you are now? It's important to share how lost I was, shorn of hair. Forced to see I hadn't had hair/clothes that were me, even before the accidental hair shearing. Moments of epiphany brought about sideways. Did I like the process of getting here? NO. Glad my life is in a new chapter? YES.
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This is where your Garden Design, below, begins. Inside your home.

Pic, above, here.
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There was a secondary reason for buying a new wardrobe, beyond the new hairstyle. After my 30 year marriage I gained a bit of weight. This year, 6 years later, I accidentally lost my divorce weight. With the new hair, new clothes & weight loss, you can imagine the biggest response, weight loss. How?
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Long story short, pickled refrigerator mixed vegetables. My own recipes.

Pic, above, here.
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Excepting this refrigerator pickled ripe pineapple with fresh jalepenos and fresh cilantro. OMG. Knew the recipe was a winner first time reading it. Eating it, beyond sublime. A great relish, or to mix in with my refrigerator pickled black bean salad.......
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Will write soon about the refrigerator pickled mixed vegetable (accidental) diet in detail. Yes, getting that many questions/requests for it. No, I was never hungry. No, it's not for everyone, I've always loved lemons, limes, pickles, vinegar.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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No, there are zero photos of original hair disaster shearing. Why would I do that? Will get pics of clothes/hair now with pics copied from. Cannot imagine not having my Garden Design background for this life chapter, there was zero time to hire an image consultant. Beloved was out-of-state working during the worst of this story, surprisingly, he likes the short hair. Beloved is the original, Let your hair grow longer, type of man. I did ask him later, "Do you really like my short hair, or are you being a good man?"

10 comments:

Wonderful post. I love the hair of those you "copied" and imagine it looks wonderful on you. I'll look forward to the pickled fruit/veg. recipe.Best to you. I'm about to embark on a new chapter---leaving a corporate job to pursue my love of landscape/gardening. Wish me luck.Karen

Since you live who you are, we can see by your work that you are timelessly beautiful...hair and clothes are just window dressing...congratulations, however, on rolling with the punches, so to speak. You have been missed these last 2 months. God bless and keep you AND that good man!

Well, you've made me feel a tad better about my short hair. The cut is unintentional; I asked him to TRIM and he SHEARED. I'm still upset even though it is a good haircut. Like you, I've thinnish blond/gray hair but with a lot of natural wave. Maybe I should go shorter but don't think I've the nerve for that.